Statement on the appointment of the new President and Vice-Chancellor
Sheffield UCU would like to extend a warm welcome to Professor Koen Lamberts. We look forward to working with him very much.
The University of Sheffield’s Chief Operating Officer, Andy Dodman, wrote to us recently to reiterate that the incoming President and Vice Chancellor will ‘play a key role in building strong and meaningful industrial relations here at Sheffield.’ Sheffield UCU members may recognise Professor Lamberts’ name from his role as Chair of the Employers’ Pension Forum for Higher Education, where he was also Chair of the USS sub-committee. In August 2017 he wrote for Universities UK1 about the USS scheme, noting that the scheme was £12.6bn in deficit. ‘With a deficit this large’, he wrote, ‘doing nothing is not an option’.
We hope to have the opportunity to discuss this and other matters with Professor Lamberts very soon.
Dr Sam Marsh
President
Sheffield UCU
1 https://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/blog/Pages/Addressing-the-university-pension-fund-deficit.aspx